Edgar A. Stanley was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio and graduated from the University of Illinois. He initially worked in Cleveland and resided on West 105th Street. While in Cleveland he worked for Albert Skeel and Frank Barnum. He moved to Youngstown in 1911, where he formed a partnership with Morris W. Scheibel, with whom he continued to practice until the mid-1920s. In 1930 he moved to Winter Park, Florida.